Montezemolo: La Speranzosa is living up to our expectations

Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo has declared his contentment with the way the opening round of the Formula 1 season panned out for the Maranello squad.

He has dubbed the F138 ‘La Speranzosa’ (the hopeful one) and declared after the race in Melbourne, “La Speranzosa is living up to our hopes. We did what we expected to do. We raced a good race, particularly against Red Bull and Vettel, whom I consider our strongest rival.”

“Our goal was to make it to the podium and we did that. That’s definitely a positive start to the Championship and will be good for the team psychologically: for the mechanics, the technicians and the drivers. It was important to start the season well as that hadn’t happened in the last two years.”

Felipe Massa leads Fernando Alonso in Melbourne

He added, “We have more development to do on the single-seater. We know we don’t have the fastest car but we have a lot of irons in the fire too. And obviously, developing an intrinsically good car is a much easier thing to do.”

“I’m satisfied with Felipe Massa’s performance – he was very fast in qualifying and delivered a brilliant race. Fernando Alonso also did very well. He looked motivated and happy to have seen the first good responses to the tests confirmed on the track. So now, it’s feet back on the ground because there’s still a lot of work to do,” said Montezemolo. (GP247)